November 02, 2008

Sunday quick slants from Weis

A few nuggets from Charlie Weis' day-after dissection of a 36-33, four-overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday...

The Irish offensive line may be a man down, pending test results on Chris Stewart's knee. The junior guard mysteriously went down with the injury while running onto the field late in the Pitt game, and Weis said it could be a while before Stewart runs anywhere.

"Chris doesn't look very good," Weis said Sunday. "His knee locked out on the way out to the field. His knee just locked. He's going to get tested. If he did get 'scoped, it would probably be four weeks."

During a predictably restless night of sleep, Weis decided to shake up the Irish's schedule in order to shake the team out of whatever doldrums the Pitt loss caused.

The Irish will meet at 6 a.m. on Monday, and then lift weights and condition, which "gets things out of their system," Weis said. Then they will go over first- and second-down scouting for Boston College in the afternoon, a process that normally waits until Tuesday. That will allow Weis to get his team out on the field earlier Tuesday.

Basically, Weis is accelerating the preparation process in some areas so he doesn't wait until Wednesday to get the team back to normal.

"What I'm trying to do more than anything else is shock their system, get them out of a rut," Weis said. "I had to come up with a plan to make sure it wasn't business as usual."

The Irish lineup for the Boston College game could be different than the one that took the field against Pittsburgh, and it will have nothing to do with injury. Certain starters may be on notice.

"There will be some frontline players that will definitely be challenged this week," Weis said. "I'm not getting into particulars. If they don't know right now, which they should, they will certainly know (Monday)."

One player possibly climbing the ladder? Freshman cornerback Robert Blanton.

"(Blanton) did a fairly decent job in covering most of day," Weis said. "There are a couple tackles he would have liked to have done better. But he's not afraid to be out there. I could definitely see Blanton playing more."

Golden Tate may be on his way into Weis' doghouse -- for his off-field performance. After the loss on Saturday, Tate opined that the Irish got "too comfortable" and therefore couldn't finish off the Panthers despite a two-touchdown halftime lead.

Weis did not appreciate Tate's candor, for one. In an unrelated discourse about second-half offensive issues, the Irish also specifically cited an obvious mental error by Tate -- without mentioning his name. Now, it's Enter: The Censor.

"Let's just say I'll talk with Golden and he won't be saying that anymore," Weis said. "Just like Michael Floyd was lateraling the ball in the North Carolina game."

Comments

Charlie needs to focus some attention on the predictability of the offense in the second half Where was the pizazz in the play calling? No reverses, no lateral/pass combinations. Just hitch-em-upn-ride runs and passes. Charlie needs to figure out why Clausen didn't check off from a called pass when the defense had only 3 DL in the box, with LB's a good 7 yards off the ball. Also the OL regressed some in the second half, allowing pressure from only 3 or 4 DL. And why at the end were the plays seemingly going deep downfield? In college, the clock stops on first down, the way to move downfield with the defense Pitt was running was to get 10 yards a pass, get the first down and repeat, not running 20+ yard patterns. On the defensive front, can't believe Pitt was able to run that single wing offense and always get at least 5 yards and more likely close to 10 yards a pop. No scheme to stop that? Charlie needs to focus more on his and his staff's coaching shortfalls, less focus on Golden Tate's comments. Charlie appeared tired at the end of the game, saw him leaning over holding on to his knees, did that affect his mental execution? Maybe that knee injury is having more of an impact that he wants to admit? Maybe the team would be better served with Charlie in the booth, where he won't be taxed physically and will be close to his mental best in the 4th quarter. Just my opinions.

One more thing, as an NJ native, Charlie should know the reaon you keep "airing the laundry in-house" is so that no one knows you are airing the laundry, defeats the purpose if you tell people you are doing the laundry in-house. No need to tell the press anything about Golden, that is why you have a door to your office Charlie, get Golden in the office, close the door and have the hard conversation with him face-to-face. All you had to say at the press conference was "I wasn't aware of his statements, next question." There is no whine in leader.

About Brian Hamilton

Brian Hamilton was assigned to the Notre Dame beat in July 2007 and is curious to see if fans have any interest in what happens to the football team there.

Since joining the Tribune in September 2005, Brian has covered everything from the Illinois high school cheerleading championships to the WNBA to the Final Four and Super Bowl XLI, nearly all of it without embarrassment. In the summer of 2006, he wrote a profile of a plucky, under-the-radar recruit named Jimmy Clausen, giving the kid an infusion of much-needed publicity.

Prior to arriving at the Tribune, Brian spent six years scraping permafrost off his notebook while working in Minnesota at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and mainly covering college football, basketball and the NBA's Timberwolves. This after attending one of the best schools for journalism in America, Northwestern University, and taking full advantage by majoring in English and creative writing while dropping his one journalism class after two weeks.

Brian grew up on the north side of Westfield, N.J., and now lives in Lakeview. He has many leather-bound books and his apartment smells of rich mahogany. Merlin Olsen comes over on occasion.